Wade Miller lost a couple of mph on his fastball yesterday/this morning (yessiree, back in Singapore) and didn’t have the curve, and was punished for it. It’s weird. Right now I think the Sox pitching is unpredictably bad - which in a way is worse than Blaine Neal bad, since knowing Neal can’t pitch means he can always be saved for mopup, whereas Miller had a couple of good outings before this one.
And yet, for all that bad pitching, down by 6 in the 2nd inning, my worry wasn’t that the Sox would keep on bleeding runs; for some reason I was sure Jeremi Gonzalez could stanch it (which he did - he’s not been great in his starts, but I think he’s adequate in long relief). My worry was that the Sox couldn’t score 6 runs in 7 innings - which, given that they’ve scored about as many runs as the supposed offensive juggernaut Baltimore (245 to the Orioles’ 247), should have been a ridiculous idea. And sadly, that’s the worry that came true.